Alethea Osborne is currently a researcher for the Countering Violent Extremism pillar at the WANA Institute. Her particular interests include the relationship between the disengagement of young people from political and civic organisations and their conception of extremism. In the past Alethea has been involved in multiple projects relating to the empowerment of youth groups, often with a particular focus on women and refugee groups. Throughout her university education she volunteered with refugee support groups in the UK and abroad, including coordinating a summer project for refugees in Jenin, the West Bank. Furthermore, whilst studying for her MPhil in Modern Middle East Studies at St Antonys College, Oxford, Alethea co-founded a support effort known as Oxford2Calais in which volunteers with linguistic, medical, and legal skills from the UK provided important support to many of the young people living in the Calais camps. She has carried out extensive research, both in the UK and Jordan, on many of the unseen barriers preventing women from actively participating in society– barriers which are often built upon uninformed preconceptions about women’s health and weaknesses.